Second Lieutenant Robert McKee (photo below) was shot down in the B-24H he was piloting by enemy fire over Brunswick, Germany on April 8, 1944. The pilot, along with ten crew members perished in the encounter. Allied forces were unable to locate a burial site for the group. Attempts were made to find and identify the fallen, but little progress was made.
From the identification notification more details were provided:
In 2015, an independent research group, Missing Allied Air Crew Research Team (MAACRT), contacted DPAA historians with new information related to a possible crash site near Wistedt, Germany. Interviews with elderly local residents indicated there were two crash sites, but only one was recovered by American forces following the war. Investigators located the second crash site and were able to recover various pieces of wreckage. Possible remains were also located and transferred to the DPAA laboratory for analysis and identification. At the time, no matches could be made with any Unknowns and further investigations were scheduled.
Between 2021 and 2023, DPAA investigators returned to the crash site and continued investigations, then excavations and recoveries. By the end of November 2023, all evidence, including possible osseous remains and possible life support equipment, had been recovered and returned to the DPAA laboratory.
To identify McKee’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological and dental analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome DNA analysis.
Second Lieutenant McKee will be interred at the Southern Nevada Veterans Cemetery on Friday, April 4, more than eighty years after his plane was shot down. To honor McKee, pilots from Nellis Air Force base will conduct a flyover between 12:15PM and 12:45PM. The pilots will be flying World War II aircraft during the flyover.
📸: Robert McKee, Second Lieutenant, courtesy of Department of Defense
